Some time ago I sent an OIA request to the Auditor-General for all of their credit card expenses. They ini­tially refused because the Auditor-General is not sub­ject to the OIA.

They have now recon­sid­ered and accord­ingly pro­vided the infor­ma­tion that I requested.

Voluntary compliance with a request, when there is no statutory obligation to do so is great leadership.

Every instance of expense is detailed with who was there and what it was about. Even park­ing dock­ets are fully explained. Com­pare that to Len Brown’s still secret Volare dinner.

Talking of which, has the Ombudsman made a decision yet?

Lyn Provost is the epit­ome of fis­cal rec­ti­tude. She flew Pacific Blue to Port Moresby which is pig of a flight at the best of times and one that no one would be-grudge a busi­ness class fare and/or a Groser/McCully style truck load of piss to soothe the nerves for that flight. But our cheap and fru­gal Auditor-General flew Pacific Blue and bought two sets of sand­wiches, cook­ies and an iced tea for a total of $28.20. That’s a bar­gain no mat­ter how much they charge for an iced tea on Pacific Blue. She even stayed in a dive of a hotel. That’s tak­ing one for the team in any­ones book. …

On the 26th of March 2010 there is an amount of $3 for short term park­ing, this was when her fam­ily came to pick her up at the air­port instead of billing it to Cor­po­rate Cabs for a hundy. She fre­quently gets peo­ple to pick her up from air­ports instead of bill the tax­payer for cab fares.

She is tighter than a fish’s arse and that’s water­proof. Lyn Provost, civil ser­vant, I dub thee The Queen of Mean.

Most recipients of a nickname from Whale Oil are not that happy about it, but in this case I think the Auditor-General will be happy with it.

More seriously, it is great to see the AG aware of the moral leadership role of her office. It is a million years removed from the days of Jeff Chapman, who was actually convicted for fraud.

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43 Responses to “Well done the Auditor-General”

The Auditor-General’s actions go some way to restoring one’s faith that somewhere out there, there still are Government servants (be they civil or political) who do indeed have a moral compass, who do recognise that they have an obligation to be frugal, responsible and accountable for how they spend taxpayer money.

Then at the other end of the scale you have Pansy Wong who seems to think she was elected so that her family and their business associates could grow rich from the public tit.
Is anyone keeping a tally on how many National rorters there are in only a single term!

m@tt: think about it a different way. All parties have a proportion of rorters. They’re hard to weed out until you give them an opportunity to show they’re a rorter. National have taken very direct action against most of theirs, so their first term has involved a lot of them leaving. Labour tolerated, even encouraged, theirs, so they kept doing it term after term, whilst Labour helped to keep their expenses secret. I know which approach I prefer.

m@tt Wouldn’t you love to see Labour’s travel expenses for the 9 years they were in govt. We all know we funded Helen and Peter’s frequent holidays in places like Norway and South America but perhaps there were discussions about her new job with significant people. Would that be breaking the rules? And who knows what else is hidden away. Would Phil open the books?
Actually I don’t really give a toss but it’s a bit rich for Phil to be on his high moral horse when for nearly a decade he and his govt kept all of this totally secret and it is only because John Key opened the books that we know what his team are doing or that we found out about Chris Carter, Jim Anderton (that $100,000 junket through Europe!!) etc etc.
So all credit to Key and his readiness to take the flak while all this gets sorted and MPs are paid a salary and legit expenses and that’s it.

I completely agree that in the culture that had developed over the last few decades there were many MP’s from both sides of the house rorting the system in this manner. It was wrong then, it’s wrong now. What beggars belief is that Pansy Wong was STILL DOING IT, even after very very clear signals had be sent and a definite change in behaviour was expected. How long is it since Carter, Jones, Heatley, Worth, English, Hide were all tarred with this brush? How is it that these trips of Wong’s were being approved? Was she outright lying or were those signing off on them just turning a blind eye?

David, “the Pansy Wong trip” was in “late 2008″ but it was possibly not the only one – in her statement Wong said “I am not able at this point to give the Prime Minister an assurance that this is a one-off situation”.

Also unclear still is if there was improper use of her electorate office, and if there was when that occurred to.

Are they still in the Immigration business? Understand that they are no longer in Government, but just wonder wether they and their old muckers in the Department Of Labour (Appropriate and very accurate) are able to slip stuff under the radar?

You know for old times sake and a divvy up from the grateful import who may have been generous to the Party for the easy passage.

Mr Field and quite a few other leading labour persons, and their hench-monkeys have proven form here.

@matt 9:45am I agree, retrospective revalidation of all claims and use of rebates is something that each MP should have undertaken when the manure hit the propellor. Not to do it was careless, or dumb. Either way one would expect better of a Cabinet Minister of supposed intellectual capability.

I know it is well-meant but I am not sure that the title “Queen of Mean”comes out that well! Still, full kudos to Provost for her rectitude, and to Whale Oil for his expose.

On the subject of Wong, how about holding back with the vitriol until the full facts are established? It is not (yet) clear to me that the offence was any greater than her husband doing some business on the side while on holiday.

“I am not able at this point to give the Prime Minister an assurance that this is a one-off situation”.
Doublespeak for “yes, there have been several instances of this.”

Wong’s goose is cooked, and she should resign now, although the investigation into her travel affairs must continue. To claim, as some National Party flunkie suggested, that she probably didn’t know her husband had booked the trip, it’s beyond belief.

Congratulations to that woman. She should get a bonus for the way she has conducted herself in her position. That’s the way it should be, performance based rather than the entitement attiude that the majority seem to adopt.

James – the auditor general has no power over that. Jim is actually a party leader. The party has only one member and representative, but the auditor general can’t make any decisions over that. Jim is inside the letter of the law (as was Bill English), but Jim has no shame and no future, and therefore won’t do the right thing like Bill did.

Maggie, did you have anything to add to this thread? I think Whale is doing something useful here – I’m pleasantly surprised at the result of his investigation, and he’s doing something that the MSM should be doing. Too many people complain that bloggers don’t create anything original or do any investigation of their own, when one does some we get people like you acting like it’s worthless. Realistically, what you really mean is “he’s a right wing blogger, so anything he does must be wrong, I can’t put my finger on what is wrong about it, so I’ll just denigrate it in general.” And you wonder why people have a negative reaction to you.

Great to see the AG providing such an example of financial rectitude. Just as it should be when we remember the scandal of Jeff Chapman. Was he the one with the taxpayer funded aeroplane in his garage or was that yet another? All appointed by the mandarins at the State Services Commission – Hunn and Winteringham. What a dismal series of appointments they made.

John Key is right in his using sunlight as a great disinfectant. We owe him a big thank you. Perhaps it is a good thing having a rich man as PM as he is not in the business of lining his own pockets.

[PaulL 11:58] Or a negative reaction to socialists in general. Meanwhile, the Queen of Mean deserves a medal. Literally. She absolutely doesn’t sound remotely like the usual socialist civil servant type. Not the remotest sign of entititlitis.

Maggie, I don’t think that Whale is trying to “earn his benefit”. Presumably even those on a benefit get time off – you know, weekends, night times and such. Funny, I haven’t seen much suggestion from people on the left that there is a need to earn a benefit before – interesting concept. Can we broaden it to other people too, or is it specially for people you don’t agree with?

Maggie:
1. Strictly, no, time off doesn’t apply. As my father in law says, it’s a bugger being retired, every day you’re still retired, no holidays. But, the fact that he has time to do some blogging doesn’t imply that there is a problem, for all I know he spends 40 hours a week hitting the streets looking for work, or doing rehabilitation to get back into a job.

2. If Whale can work, can find a job but chooses not to take it, and is still on a benefit, then yes, he’d be a bludger. I’m not sure that either of those first two conditions are true though – he’s been pretty clear about his illness, so unless you’re telling me that depression isn’t a real illness, then I’m not sure where you’re going other than being nasty to someone who is ill. Not particularly caring and sharing, but that doesn’t really surprise me.

Were you going to answer my question about whether you’d be in favour of “earning the benefit” is something we could apply to all those in receipt of a benefit?

See, that’s just nasty Maggie. You repeated what I already said (so you’re agreeing with me), you ignored the important caveat about whether it is likely that he can work given his well discussed illness, and then you made it nasty with a little twist in the end.

What value did that have? And you wonder why some people here think you’re a nasty piece of work?

Actually I want to know where the fuck you can get short term parking at the airport for $3!! I pick my daughter up there for all the school holidays and it usually costs at least $6 no matter how well I time it. I suppose if you have someone waiting in the car like a formula one pitstop it might be that cheap…..